While MLB Network’s “Intentional Talk” shows fan tweets at the bottom of the screen each episode, the program went a step further on a special Social Media Day episode. The show, hosted by Chris Rose and Kevin Millar, gave fans an opportunity to produce the January 25th episode. In the week leading up to the episode,@IntentionalTalk, asked fans to contribute photos and videos for recurring segments “How Pro Is That?,” “What Just Happened?,” “That Was Awkward,” and “Got Heeeem,” and to come up with topics for “5 for Friday” and questions for “Ask Kevin.” In the show’s final segment, credits featuring contributors’ Twitter handles scrolled on the left panel.
Conan O’Brien recently proved that crowdsourcing an episode is an effective way to both generate social buzz and to thank fans. MLB Network’s goal was to specifically thank diehard fans still tuning in during the long offseason. And based on the below numbers, the show was a tremendous success:
- During the week of MLB Network’s Intentional Talk social media episode, the Intentional Talk Twitter account gained 872 followers, a 77% increase over the amount of followers gained during the previous week.
- MLB Network’s main Twitter account gained 2,500 followers during the week, a 25% increase from the number of followers gained the week before.
- @IntentionalTalk is the Network’s secondary account that is used as a complement to @MLBNetwork and its 290k plus followers.
- More than 250 people submitted photos, topics, videos and votes as contributions to Intentional Talk’s social media episode.
- In the four days leading up to the show, re-tweet driven giveaways on the Intentional Talk Twitter account earned approximately 400 re-tweets.
- The show is available on iTunes and has been downloaded 114,681 times as of February 6, 2013.